Skype

A humble thank you to my followers who came out in support of ITEXPO this past week in Miami. Thank you conferees who braved a tough economic climate and came to the show. I also want to extend appreciation to the speakers, sponsors, exhibitors and attendees at the show. In addition, thanks to our many partners who contributed greatly to the success of this week of events.

Skype is now the largest provider of cross border communications in the world, by far according to a new report from TeleGeography. According to the research company, the rate of international calling has been growing at a steady compounded rate of 15% but in the last few years the slope has decreased as a result of the recession and of course, people switching to Skype.

Skype's Share of International Long-Distance Traffic, 2009

In other Skype news, the company recently upgraded their iPhone app with some minor tweaks which sadly don't include push notification.

For telecom veterans who were active in the communications space in the nineties you remember the excitement the industry enjoyed when Microsoft and Novell entered the telecom markets with TAPI and TSAPI protocols to interconnect communications systems with computers. The CTI or computer telephony integration space was born when the OS companies realized that by enabling telecom systems to be more tightly integrated with computing, they could in effect start to generate revenue by having new telecom systems built on their open platforms. Prior to this time, any sort of integration cost hundreds of thousands of dollars but CTI solutions based on desktop computers could be built for $10,000 to $15,000.

Next week's ITEXPO, Jan 20-22nd in Miami promises to be one of the best shows in the communications and technology spaces. When you consider all the knowledge you can absorb at the show with collocated events which portend the future - you just have to be there.

Today we sent out a confirmation and update regarding next week's ITEXPO and I wanted to make sure my readers were aware of many of the happenings at the show. One of the more interesting questions I get in passing is - "Rich, are you still giving away a car at the show?" The answer is yes, a Honda Element and also a Honda motorcycle.

In a tough decade, what could people count on to make their lives better? Communications - yes communications. 50% percent of people surveyed by Pew viewed the last decade unfavorably and 27% viewed it positively.

Here are some of the reasons they may have positive thoughts about the last ten years: